The dark set was simple, several dark chairs, a barbed wire fence and a grave cross (designer Shannen Precious).
The muslin backcloth, scrim, acted as a screen for the projected, well-researched photos of Laramie and the main characters of the story – design by Katie Hutton.
The costumes required researching the fashions of the late 1990s, plus police uniforms, prison outfits and angels; the wardrobe ladies, Deborah Huntley, Milena Sheridan and Ramiah Alcantara excelled.
The sound design had just the right level of music and sound effects, with such a delicate subject they had to enhance and not intrude, well done Jordan Baynes.
The lighting was well designed by Kiah van Vlijmen, then rigged by Justin Crossley and Leigh Fitzpatrick. Smoothly operated by Claire Mosel.
The production manager, Kel Fox, was helped by Deborah Huntley and Athena Thompson; with the stage manager, Hannah Summers, assisted by Meagan Dux. A good pace was essential to retain the emotion and tension of the script, the crew worked most efficiently.

        Whilst walking on Brokeback Mountain, young Aaron Stephen (Thomas Ward) finds the severely bashed body of twenty-one years old Matt Shepard tied to a fence. He calls for the police, and Officer Fluty (Tijana Simich) and Senior Officer (Mitchell Johnson) at first think the young boy is dead. However, he is taken to hospital and despite Dr Cantway (Toni Vernon) trying her best, Matt dies. His devastated parents arrive at the hospital, but there is nothing to be done except for the father, Denis (Justin Crossley) to console Mum, Judy (Shannen Precious).
        Very quickly, two locals were rounded up; one was an extreme homophobe and sadist, Aaron McKinney (William Moriarty), the other his subservient, but repentant friend, Russell Henderson (Sean Mackey). On hearing the news, two lesbians (Xarna Rappold, Kiah van Vlijmen) were consoled by the Baptist Minister (Bradley Clarke), whilst a well-meaning bigot (Tay Broadley) thought Matt got what he deserved.
        A group of newspaper reporters (Ramiah Alcantara, Imogen Appleby) arrived along with a TV reporter (Grace Pusy), desperate to hear the comments from the Judge (My Ekstrand) before blowing the whole incident into a major controversy.
       Ten years later, the Tectonic Team returned to see how the atmosphere in the town had changed. Had homophobia reduced? They interviewed a cowboy (Leigh Fitzpatrick) and his girlfriend (Claire Tebbut), before asking the local newspaper editor (Nashyhithah Md Zaini) who was giving the readers the biased opinion that they wanted to hear.
       What had the local school children learnt about the incident from their parents? Had the legal system changed under the State Politicians?

Director David Moody, who has sensitively combined the two plays into a single script, was assisted by Chloé Laffar, Jessica Serio and Tay Broadley. Even with this large cast, most of whom had several parts, the actors had to be alert and well rehearsed. One or two of the cast occasionally struggled with minor parts of their lines, the Wyoming accent or the emotion when changing characters, but this did not impede the power or enjoyment of the story line.

The team have decided to have various actors play Matt, employing males and females, with different nationalities to show that the victim is symbolic of gays everywhere. The actors all wore rainbow T-shirts.

I have seen ‘The Laramie Project’ a couple of times in the past, and even though those productions were first class, the story seemed dry and mechanical. This blended version had extra life and achieved more sympathy for the murdered boy and his family.
A heavy and challenging subject, but sensitively handled so no desire to check my watch.
The tickets are at a sensible price and the venue comfortable, so give this show a viewing.

Betzien also received a Drama Victoria Award for Best Production. In 2007, she gained the Richard Wherrett Award for excellence in playwriting; because of her amazing ability to write complex stories, a Patrick White playwright scholarship came her way. She is now university lecturer.

This poignant play by the Murdoch students can be seen at the Nexus Theatre (near car park 3), Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch nightly until 25^th October. The 80-minute performances commence at 7.00 pm.

The set is remote woodland and an old orphanage, with a shower, boiler room and dormitory. The building is tall with external water pipes, and large, wooden window frames. The appearance is that of a miserable, unwelcoming dwelling. Good work by designers Alison Snell, Andrea Solymos and Breanna Morgan.

       Children wandering through a forest come across an old orphanage, and the ghosts of the children who lived there tell their tales.

      Another nameless new girl (Samantha Larke) arrives at the railway station, suitcase in hand. Young Rosie (Chelsea Pullen) takes her to the children’s home. The young girl’s belongings are taken from her and thrown into the furnace. She is sent for a shower, and then put into a large dormitory along with a dozen others and old ghosts. New One is consoled by Old One (Lillybelle Walton) before being inspected by the matron. The matron is symbolised by an impersonal mannequin, dressed in widow’s weeds, whose puppet arms and head are moved by sticks (operator Nick Morrant). She has most of the ‘Black Skirt’ gentry and officials tied to her apron strings and under her control, not least Mr Horrocks, the school inspector (Jordan Baynes) who lives under her skirt.

       In London, young John (Alex McKell) is caught pickpocketing a gentleman (Peter Evans) and is transported to Australia for 7 years hard, convict labour by the local magistrate (Ryan Partridge).      

       Meanwhile in Scotland, young Lizzie (Jess Serio) who has been babysitting dropped the baby and so she is taken from her brother, Hamish (Kieran Renouf) and mother (Amanda Ferguson), and put in care. Likewise, Iris (Sara McIntosh) and her friend Tom (Jonathan Maddocks) are separated.

       The miserable supervisor at the home (Jess Patrick) makes the young children, Ruby and her friend (Georgia Baker, Kathryn Vincent) work hard scrubbing the floor, whilst Lucy (Stephanie Fitz-Henry), Maggie (Amelia Dee) and the Baby (Chloe Laffar) continue to live in misery.

Director Dr David Moody has generously engaged three others to assist him, and allowed the cast plenty of input. The assistant directors include Anna Brockway, who has worked with WA’s well-respected group ‘Class Act’ for some time, along with students Kate Willoughby and Rebecca Thompson. The result is amazing.

The movement and choreography of the large cast is exiting and effective. The atmosphere of the movement helps build the tension and tragedy. The cast were well tuned in to the theme and worked hard to give their best. The script moves through the many issues over the years from about 1860 to 1960. It covers all kinds of child abuse, stolen generations – both black and white, and the misery of children’s homes is laid bare.

With clever script writing, Betzien paints a lucid picture but with a brief piece of humour inserted it immediately lightens the scene. The overall effect is that of interest, sympathy and anger at what went on, but the playwright has avoided making the audience feel too despondent. Very clever writing perfectly interpreted by the directors. The audience are left to build their own picture of the situation from the ingenious symbolism.

Matt Pashley’s lighting design was exciting and outstanding. The furnace effect, coupled with the quality sound effects (Katie Southwell, Luke Gratton and Melissa Da Silva) and smoke machine (stage managed by Yukiko Kinjo, Brianna Lea) produced the desired effect of confronting horror on the audience. The final touches of costume and style are co-ordinated by Cassee Lazic, with the whole production being overseen by Tim Brain.

Dean Lovatt’s job of selling this dark play should be an easy one, as the whole production, rich script, direction, pace and interest is held throughout. A quality show at a sensible price.

After twenty years of coping with multiple sclerosis, Clare died aged only 57. She was one of an extraordinary and rare generation of British female playwrights who emerged in the 1980s. Her freedom of style and lack of restraint freed up many female UK writers to tackle new and previously ‘not talked about’ areas. After graduating as a teacher from Manchester Uni, she took plays around the schools. Then, as a tutor at Birmingham Uni, she had Sarah Kane as a student; they were co-founders of the pioneering feminists’, Women’s Theatre Group.

This bold, sensibly priced, this two-hour comedy / character study can be seen in the Murdoch Drama Rehearsal Space, opposite car park 4, Murdoch University, Murdoch, each evening at 7.00 until Saturday 4^th October.

The scene is the mid-1980s, in the bathroom of an East End flat in London. There is underwear drying on a rail, but the whole room (and auditorium) has bras and knickers everywhere. There is a ‘corner bath’ centre stage with a suspended, net curtained window overlooking the bins. A full-length mirror and vanity unit are against the rear wall.(Designer Karen Hansord). 

        A young girl is lounging in the bath with a flannel over her face. This is the virginal Jo (Samantha Larke), who seems to spend most of her days in the bath with her loofa! She lies there fantasising over the rich handsome man that is going to arrive in her life, and whisk her around the world.

      Mary (Cassee Lazic) walks into the bathroom, has a quick look in the mirror, winces at the sight of her body and shudders before rushing out again. She comes back in, and announces that she has found a revolting ‘Penthouse’ magazine in their dustbin. She reads aloud a letter from the magazine’s ‘Readers’ Page’ to show Jo just how disgusting pornography is – ‘after all, it is the tip of the iceberg leading to the world’s downfall and male depravity. It is omnipresent’. To Mary’s horror, she finds that Jo actually gets off on the writer’s lewd description of his Saturday night fun. Mary breaks down in tears, but refuses to tell Jo what is really going on in her mind.

      When Jo gets out of the bath, the third flatmate, the pedantic OCD sufferer, Celia (Stephanie Fitz-Henry) enters, only to find the bath covered in scum as usual. Celia finds the magazine and wonders how anyone can be interested in grubby sex generally.

      Saturday night will see a big party in the house, how will the three survive?

This play is a wonderful observation of how men objectify women as sex objects, and how women think men expect to see them. With skilfully handled direction by senior lecturer, Dr David Moody and his (ex-) student assistant directors, Belle Venus and Bob Morshidi, the whole situation was readily recognised.

Samantha Larke gave a very laid-back performance that gradually revealed Jo’s deeper and more sensitive feelings. Cassee Lazic’s character Mary, wore her heart on her sleeve, she had great trouble hiding her emotions and Cassee gave a heartrending, powerful performance. Stephanie was hilarious as the deep-thinking, officious housemate. Great teamwork, performed with a good, sound understanding of the beautifully written, rich dialogue.

Without wishing to detract from Samantha’s wonderful performance, or sounding too much like a pervert, is it too much to expect the girl in the bath to be nude, semi-nude or in flesh coloured underwear? When you are a student, this is a time to stretch your talents, face your fears and perform genres such as stand-up comedy, singing, dancing whilst in the company of friends. I found the fact that Jo was in an empty bath (yes real water could be very cold) draped with an aqua coloured ‘evening dress’ that was meant to represented the blue bath foam unrealistic. When Jo sat up to talk to her flatmates, the ‘water level’ came up with her bust. Could a bath full of kapok to look like foam, and pink underwear have been better? This loss of illusion weakened the effect.

Can I suggest that if someone is going to get very angry that they start with a low timbre of voice so that as their anger increases that they do not reach a pitch that is only audible to dogs?

The lighting and sound by Matt Pashley and Ryan Partridge showed just the correct amount of ‘feeling’ reflected by the play itself. Red Lauren Moir’s clever choice of costumes immediately demonstrated the personalities of the cast.

As with all of McIntyre’s plays, the script is clever, filled with insight and controversy. This production is first class – Excellent.